


Apportionment

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [95]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Fix-It, Gen, Vampire Politics, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-12 09:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4474040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The chancellors of the new Authority at least try to discuss finances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apportionment

**Author's Note:**

> Part three, "Ticker Don't Tock."
> 
>  **Original Characters** : Evelyn Winter, Kaete Himura.

“I take it the Authority didn’t used to be quite so focused on philanthropy,” Evelyn teases gently as she thumbs through some of Nora’s preliminary notes on the matter.

Eric watches his sister carefully in case she takes that the wrong way (he can see how she might, a slight on their former callousness the likes of which only he is really allowed to make without facing repercussions), but she smiles politely, if tightly.

“There was some… selective charity,” she explains carefully, “but it was almost entirely related to vampire matters, not ones between species.”

“Shockingly,” Kaete giggles, “we’ve always been selfish.”

“We,” Eric repeats ironically, eyeing Kaete skeptically.  “Last I checked, Miss Himura, you aren’t and have never been Authority.”

“I never claimed to be,” Kaete shrugs, sniffing dismissively at him and assuming (correctly) that he’s having a bit of a pissing contest.  “We meaning vampires as a whole was my implication, Northman-san.”  As with many of any of their tricks of language, she only relies on her own Japanese’s honorifics when speaking English if she’s trying to heighten some point, in this case that of her mocking respect for him.

Nora rolls her eyes.  This is precisely why she’s rarely introduced her brother to her other lovers in the past, he just provokes them.  (He doesn’t mind that she's had them, but he still provokes them.  It’s a funny balance.)

“So why have you been sitting in on our meetings instead of returning to Tokyo?” Eric presses.

“Is this normal?” Evelyn mouths at Nora.

“Unfortunately,” Nora mouths back.

“Tonight, I’m here because a great deal of the charity is going to be co-managed by the Yakanomo Corporation,” Kaete explains with a smile.  “As a way to promote interspecies cooperation, partially.  And I always was better at finances and figures than our Nora-chan.”  Another heightened point.

Eric huffs, but he lets the subject drop.

“All right,” Nora says.  “First thing, then, we ought to record all of our current sources of revenue.”

“God, I hope you don’t intend to keep taxing the constituents to hell,” Eric laughs.

“You keep saying that as if the taxes were my idea in the first place,” Nora groans.  “Those were all Guardian Zimojic, and they were in place centuries before I could have weighed in or even existed.  And I wasn’t hardly involved with the economic side of things, in more than an abstract sense.  The sociopolitical effects of money are old hat.  The numbers, as Kaete so tactfully pointed out, were never my strongest suit.”

“And you were over-busy with your countless other projects,” Eric drawls.  “The media review and subsequent spying on hapless creators, the reaching-out to otherwise untouched communities.  The…”  He trails off, and this would be the place where a crueler man might bring up her less than legal, less than moral extracurriculars, but he’s careful with her.  “The liberal arts work.”

That just makes Nora roll her eyes again.  “At least I was doing work at all,” she retorts cheerfully.

“Children,” says Evelyn, sounding like she’s chiding though she’s smiling as she speaks.

Eric laughs.  “Maybe after your first centennial I won’t find your use of that word so humorous,” he points out.

It’s true that Evelyn is remarkably young for someone who’s achieved chancellor status - only fifty-odd years since she’s turned - but she’s achieved a remarkable lot in that time, which led to Queen Tsula’s nominating her for the position.  She’s got a head for civil rights work too, came from the capital-letter movement in her human life, which seems appropriate of late.

And, small mercies, she’s a good sport, she doesn’t mind the endless teasing that comes mostly from Eric and Pam, who seem nearly incapable of taking things seriously for more than a few minutes at a time, but a bit from any end (close-knit a family as they are, they have repertoire, and she knows that if she said as much they’d deny it vehemently).  “I’ve always found it interesting how youth is such a currency for humans and such a disadvantage for us,” she muses instead of coming up with some rejoinder.

“The illusion of youth is a currency for humans,” Kaete corrects.  “The actuality of it is disdained out of hand, because age is still power.  We just don’t have to pretend otherwise because most of us are lucky to have that illusion forever.”

“How philosophical,” Eric deadpans.

“ _In any event,_ ” Nora says loudly, bringing them back to attention, “we should get working on that list.”

What they come up with, after some discussion:

  * the vast remainder of the old Authority’s accounts (to which Nora still holds the passwords)
  * the less-vast but still notable remainder of the former king’s accounts, as much as the new queen will permit to be loaned
  * whatever resources the Yakanomo Corporation will provide (thanks to Kaete’s soft touch influence)
  * the meager income from the failed attempt at a party (what of it didn’t go to repairs for Fangtasia)
  * when needed, personal bank accounts (they all have several)
  * income from constituents (less of it than before, but still a bit at the baseline, and more upon possible donation)
  * more substantial donations from monarchs and other figures of importance



“And we can add to that as we go, of course,” Nora concludes.

“And the uses?” Eric prompts.

“I think the first most important is the relief charity the party was working toward,” Nora says.  “We’ll need to get Amber’s help in actually setting the charity up, and I was thinking seemingly unrelated human parties to run it, publicly, Antoine perhaps -”

“Explain,” Evelyn says.

“If the charity was openly run by vampires, I’m afraid it would seem too much like we were trying to play heroes,” Nora says.  “For glory’s sake instead of for the sake of doing right.  I don’t want our doing what we can to be misconstrued.”

Evelyn and Eric exchange surprisingly temperate glances that mean: yes, Nora is very serious about this, there’s no doubting it, and she says, “That makes a lot of sense.”

“I’m glad,” Nora murmurs.

“I’ll speak to the board about how much we might contribute,” Kaete offers.

Eric just squeezes Nora’s hand.


End file.
